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Writing exclusively for the Sunday Mirror, Work and Pensions Secretary Kendall said the vital safety net should be helping those who can work into jobs – but Tory mismanagement has left millions trapped in unemployment and inactivity
Labour has vowed to restore trust and fairness to Britain’s welfare safety net – as minister Liz Kendall warned the bill for sickness and disability benefits will soon reach £70bn a year.
Writing exclusively for the Sunday Mirror, Ms Kendall said the vital safety net should be helping those who can work into jobs.
“Instead, because of years of Tory mismanagement, it’s trapping millions of people in unemployment and inactivity,” she wrote.
Some 2.8 million Brits are out of work due to long term sickness – double the figure a decade ago.
“We know that once a person is on sickness benefits – stuck without support or expectations to find work – they stay there. Under one per cent go back into work each month,” Ms Kendall wrote.
“It’s a shameful legacy of 14 years of Tory chaos. Be in no doubt, they failed on welfare because they failed on work.”
Labour’s plan to reform the system includes early intervention to get people healthy, fixing the “broken” assessment system and providing tailored support to get people back into work.
Ms Kendall argues unless the government changes course dramatically, the bill for sickness and disability benefits will rise from £45bn to £70bn a year by the end of the Parliament in 2030.
That figure would amount to a third of the current NHS budget – and three times the policing budget.
“Making the system fairer and more sustainable will be hard and it will take time. But this Labour government is determined to give people the chance they deserve to build a better life, through the dignity and respect good work brings, as part of our Plan for Change,” Ms Kendall wrote.
“We are stepping up to fix what’s wrong, and restore trust and fairness in the system.”
The Tories failed on welfare because they failed on work
By LIZ KENDALL, Work and Pensions Secretary
Some 2.8 million people locked out of work due to long-term sickness. 1 in 8 of our young people not in education, employment or training – with the number out of work due to long-term sickness doubling in the last 10 years. 9 million adults lacking the basic skills they need to get on.
The vital safety net of our social security system should be helping people get back to work. Instead, because of years of Tory mismanagement, it’s trapping millions of people in unemployment and inactivity.
We know that once a person is on sickness benefits – stuck without support or expectations to find work – they stay there. Under one per cent go back into work each month.
It’s a shameful legacy of 14 years of Tory chaos. Be in no doubt, they failed on welfare because they failed on work.
Too many brilliant Britons I meet across the country are stuck on lengthy NHS waiting lists that ballooned under the Conservatives. That means millions can’t get back to health and back to work.
Combine that with the welfare system we inherited, where people are pushed into a long queue for assessments with no support to get work, and you have a recipe for disaster.
People who can work, and want to work, are trapped – that’s bad for their living standards and bad for their health.
It means a spiralling benefits bill that is spending billions on the costs of failure rather than acting as a springboard to success.
Spending on working age sickness and disability benefits will reach £70 billion a year by the end of the Parliament unless we change course.
That’s over one-third of our current NHS budget and three times more than we spend on policing and keeping our communities safe.
This Labour government has already started to fix the NHS with an additional £26bn investment to cut waiting lists.
Alongside this, we’ve improved the quality of work through our Employment Rights Bill and boosted the income of the lowest paid with a significant increase in the minimum wage.
We’ve also brought in the biggest employment support in a generation through our Get Britain Working plan which will overhaul jobcentres to actually get people into work, introduce a new Youth Guarantee so all young people are earning or learning, and give local areas new responsibilities to get people back to health and back to work.
Now, as part of our Plan for Change, it’s time to fix the welfare system.
This Labour government will always support for people who cannot work because that’s what social security is there for. We will never turn our backs on people in genuine need.
But we need urgent reform to overhaul the benefit system so it helps people who can work to get back to work as soon as possible.
For too long, meaningful reform to our welfare system has been ducked and delayed – stunting productivity, slowing down growth and ultimately holding our people and our country back.
These reforms will be led by three clear principles.
We will prevent people falling into long term worklessness through early intervention to get people back to health and back to work.
We will restore trust and fairness in the system by fixing the broken assessment process that drives people into welfare dependency.
And we will provide proper tailored support to get more people into work and on at work.
By addressing these issues, we can get the benefits bill on a more sustainable footing and fix the UK’s productivity problem which is a key driver of economic growth.
Making the system fairer and more sustainable will be hard and it will take time. But this Labour government is determined to give people the chance they deserve to build a better life, through the dignity and respect good work brings, as part of our Plan for Change.
We are stepping up to fix what’s wrong, and restore trust and fairness in the system.
